A Spark Of Life
by Mekkie
Summary: There's been a rash of burglaries in the city, and the thief seems to be more than human, but who or what is he? [Completed!]
1. Opening Act

>In Titan Tower, the Titans were enjoying a respite in the recent spree of criminal activity. Robin sat on the couch in the main

room, enjoying the spring sunshine pouring through the large windows. As he was drifting off to sleep, the giant TV screen

beeped, and said "ATTENTION! INCOMING CALL!"

>Robin sat up, muttering to himself, "I knew it was too good to last."

>The TV screen showed a large picture of the police chief, Captain Robert Samuel. "Robin, last night there was a break-in at

>HAL Electronics. We were hoping you could give us a hand."

>Robin replied, "Sure, any leads yet?"

>"No, but we have reason to believe it may have been the kind of criminals you deal with."

>"Some one will come over right away, while the crime scene is still fresh."

>"Much appreciated." The TV screen went dark.

>Cyborg walked into the room wiping his hands on an oily rag. "Who was that, anything important?"

>Robin nodded, "Yeah, feel up for checking out a crime scene at an electronics company?"

>Cyborg grinned, "Whatever electronics they got, they can't be as good as mine, lets go."

>At the offices and production center of HAL Electronics, police had roped off the main entrance and most of the building. An

officer led Robin and Cyborg to a small inner room where the police chief and another man in a suit were studying a bank of

computer monitors. The police chief introduced the other man as Mark Cruz, a company representative. Mr. Cruz described

the situation as it stood. "Last night, at 11:32, some one broke into our high security vault and stole several experimental

computer chips." He typed in a command on the control panel, bringing up displays on two of the screens. "The

first screen, here on the left, shows the only hall leading into the vault, and this other screen shows the vault itself. The computer

chips are kept in the box on the central pedestal." The clock in the bottom corner of the screen counted down to 11:32, and

then the screens cut out in a pattern of snowy fuzz for several seconds. When they returned to normal clarity, the box was

missing.

>"What just happened?" asked Cyborg.

>Mr. Cruz began to speak, but the police chief cut him off. "That corridor is over 60 meters in length, and the cameras were

only out for 8 seconds. So you'd either have to be inhumanly fast-"

>"-or you could fly," finished Robin.

>The chief nodded his head and asked, "Know anyone who could do it?"

>"Yeah, several. Fortunately, most of them are in jail at the moment."

>Cyborg was reexamining the security tapes when he looked at Mr. Cruz and inquired, "Can I get the specifications on your

security system? If I could go over the programming I might be able to figure out how some one messed with your system."

>Mr. Cruz suddenly looked nervous, as he replied "To be honest, we don't have the information on the security system, we

hired an outside contractor to install and run everything."

>Both Robin and Cyborg were incredulous, but Cyborg spoke first. "You're an electronics company that doesn't manage its

own security?"

>Mr. Cruz suddenly looked quite offended. He took a deep breath and spoke rapidly, "We design and manufacture military

grade electronic weapons and defense systems. We left the security of our building to another company that works in that

department. If you need the security codes, you'll have to get them from the company's main headquarters. The name is

Morgen Lyn Inc. and the building is downtown, in the business district. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do." With a

curt nod, he stormed out of the room.

>"I think you hurt his feelings, Cyborg" Robin chuckled.

>The police chief added his own thoughts as he casually lit a cigarette. "Damn corporate bloodsucker." Turning to Robin, he

continued, "Good luck getting anything from the security company, we've already had several officers turned away when we

asked for their cooperation. Anyway, if you need anything else let me know." He then left the room.

>"What now?" asked Cyborg.

>"We're going to see the security company, but first we're going to swing by Titan Tower and pick up the rest of the team."


	2. Morgen Lyn Inc

At Titan Tower, Robin and Cyborg has just entered through the main access when Beast Boy burst out of the stairwell. Beast

Boy looked panicky and was shouting incomprehensible gibberish. Cyborg and Robin allowed themselves to be dragged

outside, where Robin grabbed Beast Boy and tried to calm him down while asking, "What happened? What's wrong?"

Beast Boy pulled away from Robin and answered, although his words were slightly garbled because he looked like he was

trying to rip out his own tongue. "Whaf wong? I'll tell 'ou whaf wong! Staf'ire twying to learn 'ow to cook!"

Robin was extremely puzzled, as was Cyborg, but sensing no real danger, Cyborg turned his blaster cannon back into his hand.

Beast Boy spat several times on the ground, and then proceeded to explain further, this time in a more normal voice. "Starfire

thought she could learn more about food on earth if she learned to cook, but someone has got to get her away from the stove.

That girl is a disaster in the kitchen, and she wanted me to try out all the food she cooked."

Suddenly, Starfire's voice came drifting outside. "BeastBoy! Where are you? This latest batch of brownies should be better!

They are purple!"

Beast Boy quickly changed into a crow and flew off. Robin and Cyborg glanced at each other before Cyborg said, "Purple

brownies? I think maybe we should follow Beast Boy."

* * *

On the shore of the mainland, Cyborg and Robin waited while BeastBoy was completely sick. He kept flicking through

creatures, trying to find something that could digest Starfire's cooking. After he turned into a shark, Cyborg couldn't resist

joking, "You're looking a little green around the gills there."

BeastBoy returned to normal shape just long enough to say, "You think this is funny? Just wait until I - URP!" Beast Boy

turned away and threw up again.

* * *

Later, after BeastBoy had thoroughly emptied out his entire digestive system, Robin filled him in on the morning's events.

"So what now?" asked Beast Boy, "Are we gonna go talk to the security people or try to do something else?"

Robin answered, "Yes, but I'd like to see if we can find out something more about the company first. The police chief said it

was called Morgen Lyn Inc."

"There's a comptuter store on the corner" mentioned Cyborg. "I'm betting anything that they've got a wireless internet

terminal I can patch into."

At the computer store Robin, Cyborg, and BeastBoy were greeted by a sales clerk who seemed completely overwhelmed by

having the three superheroes in his store. "Can I, uh, help you, um, sirs?"

"Nah, I'm just gonna stand around for a few minutes," answered Cyborg as he began to type on the small keyboard on his

arm.

BeastBoy's inhumanely short attention span was rapidly running out, until he spied an end-of-aisle display. BeastBoy let out

a squeal of delight as he dashed over and snatched up a copy of the game. Robin was forced back as Beast Boy shoved the

game in his face, all the time jabbering madly. "Dude, check it out! It's Biker Zombies from Mars 9000: The Return of Lone 

Skull!" I've been waiting for months for this to come out, we just gotta buy it! Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease!"

Robin sighed in relief as Cyborg cut in. "All done. I've downloaded several articles into my onboard memory banks. Their

office is on Gulliver Street, between 22nd and 23rd."

"Alright" said Robin, "that's close; we can walk."

"But what about my video game?" Beast Boy was looked like he was on the verge of tears.

"This is more important, we'll pick up a copy on the way home."

As they left the store, Beast Boy grumbled under his breath, "I think you've got your priorities screwed up."

The main office building for Morgen Lyn Inc. was over 40 stories tall, with the outside designed with polished sheet metal and

large glass windows.

"So now what?" asked Cyborg. "It's a big building and we don't know exactly what were looking for."

"We should try and find someone who can answer questions for us." Remarked Robin

Beast cut in, "In my favorite detective comics the corporate villains always rule their minions and lackeys from high atop their

towers of evil!"

"Were trying to be serious here, Beast Boy" scolded Cyborg.

Robin, however, had a different opinion, "I think Beast Boy may be on to something"

"What!"

"Well, think about it; if we want answers, the best person to talk to would be the one who controls everyone else. I doubt that

any of the emplyees would be willing to talk to us in case their boss found out. Still, we do have to remember that this is the

security company, Its really unlikely they're the ones behind the robbery. Cyborg, who would be the manager of the

company?"

Cyborg, despite his surprise, recovered quickly. "Uh, yeah, well that's easy. One of the only names I got in a general search

of the company was Aaron Faserro. He both owns and manages the company." Cyborg brought up a display in his onboard

computer panel. "You should read some of what I found on this guy. In every article words like "brilliant" and "genius" pop up

all over the place."

"Well, lets go get this over with."

The three trooped into the lobby of the building, which was decorated with marble. A male receptionist sat behind a large desk

on one side of the lobby while 2 security guards lounged by the row of elevators. Robin marched up to the desk where the

receptionist barely glanced at him, giving the impression he was totally unimpressed. Rather than trying to be cordial, Robin got

Right to the point. "We want to talk to Aaron Faserro."

The receptionist replied, "I'm sure you would, but I doubt Mr. Faserro wants to see you. He's busy at the moment."

A bit taken back, Robin tried again, "We have some important questions for him."

"Are you working for the police?" before Robin could reply, the man continued, "Mr. Faserro has already told the police he is

not answering any questions."

As the receptionist turned back to his computer, Cyborg decided that Robin's tactics weren't working, so he decided to try

some of his own. He leaned over the desk and lifted the receptionist out of his seat by the collar of his jacket. "Where's

Faserro?" he growled.

The receptionist was now visibly terrified, and pointed down the hall.

Still carrying the receptionist, Cyborg headed down the hall with Beast Boy and Robin trailing in his wake. As they passed the

security guards, one whispered to the other, "Should we do somethin'?" "Uh, no…" his companion replied, "I mean, they're

the good guys, right?"

At the end of the lobby, the hallway split to go in three directions. Cyborg simply glanced at the receptionist and the man

began stuttering, "End of th-the hallway, th-th-through the d-d-d-double d-doors." Cyborg walked to the end of the hallway, were he

smacked open the doors without pausing to stop. As Robin and Beast Boy followed him into the room, all three stood still in surprise

at the sight. Instead of an office they were looking at what appeared to be a giant gym. The ceiling was almost 50 feet high, and

exercise equipment of every kind was set up all over the huge floor-space.

Their eyes were drawn to the single figure in the entire place, as the person flipped twisted through a series of flips on a set of

uneven bars. With one last double flip, the figure landed gracefully on the mats that covered the entire floor. One they stopped

moving, it was easy to see the person was a young man. He had dark blond hair, and was dressed in a white T-shirt and white

training pants, with bare feet. As he sauntered towards the Titans, he managed to look bored, disdainful, and annoyed all at once. Cyborg

dumped the receptionist unceremoniously on the floor and, before anyone else could get a word out, he began babbling to the other

man. "Sir these people just barged in here demanding to see and the security were no help at all and I'm terribly sorry…" up until

then, the young man had been staring intently at the Titans, but he shifted his gaze the receptionist, who quickly realized the best

course of action would be to shut up. Through all of this, the young man hadn't said a word.

Beast Boy suddenly jumped in with his thoughts. "You're Aaron Faserro? But you can't be more than 20!"

When the man spoke, his voice lacked any emotion. "My age is irrelevant. You have barged in here uninvited. Now leave."

Before Cyborg could do anything rash, Robin cut in. "We just want to ask you some questions."

"Well I don't want to answer them."

Cyborg changed his hand into his sonic cannon, and put it right up to Aaron's head. "How about you talk or I shoot."

Aaron seemed completely unfazed. "With what justification? I have done nothing wrong."

Robin put himself between Cyborg and Aaron, while trying to defuse the situation. Speaking to Cyborg first he said, "He's

right, we need his cooperation." Robin waited until Cyborg had retracted his blaster before turning back to Aaron and asking,

"Why don't you want to talk with us?"

"Because," answered Aaron, "I'm on my break. I guarantee your not here on a social call, so you must want to talk business. I

get one hour a day that's business free, and this is it. I have a company to run, so I take my relaxation when I can get it."

While Robin was trying to think of something else to say, Aaron turned the receptionist and spoke only two words, "Get out."

The man made an undignified scramble out of the room, slamming the doors behind him. Aaron turned his back on the Titans

and walked several steps away. Stopping, he asked, "You're not going to leave easy are you?" He glanced back to see Robin

shaking his head. Letting out a little sigh, Aaron said, "How about a deal then." He walked over to a compartment in the wall

and removed two long, wooden staves. He tossed one to Robin, who caught it deftly. Aaron turned to face the Titans and

twirling the staff in his fingers said, "If Robin can convince me that my workout doesn't need to take a full hour, then I'll have

time to answer your questions."

"Let me get this straight," replied Robin, "You want me to fight you?"

Aaron pointed his staff right at Robin and nodded. "Either that or leave."

"Alright," agreed Robin, "But I hope you know what you're getting into." Robin twirled his staff expertly in his fingers,

getting used to the feel of the weapon. It was slightly lighter and less flexible than he was used to.

Aaron showed his first sign of emotion as the corners of his mouth were tugged upwards into a small smile. He whipped the

staff in circle around his arms, legs, and chest, making the air hum. Then he snapped it up, so it spun like a buzz saw and almost

hit the ceiling, then dropped back down. Just as the staff was about to hit the floor, Aaron reached behind his right hand behind

his back and, without even looking, caught the spinning weapon. "Don't worry, I can take care of myself."


	3. Fight!

As Robin and Aaron away from the door where there was more space, Cyborg muttered to

BeastBoy, "I don't like this. With one punch I could knock this guy out."

"Yeah, but then he couldn't tell us anything", quipped BeastBoy.

Robin took up an on guard stance, and nodded to his opponent to indicate he was ready. Aaron's

reply was to leap forward and attack, driving robin back towards a wall. Robin, surprised at the

onslaught, parried blows wildly for a moment before regaining his balance and jumping

backwards to gain some space. Aaron pause and said, "I find it hard to believe that you're that

slow, and still alive."

Robin grinned and replied, "Then start believing."

The two combatants attacked each other with wild abandon, each seeking an opening. Aaron

swung his staff low, trying to knock Robin off his feet; robin blocked and reversed the motion,

swinging for Aaron's head. Aaron let the blow glance off his arm, and drove his staff into

Robin's midriff, following up by throwing a sidewinder punch aimed at Robin's temple. Robin

managed to avoid being hit, and retaliated by elbowing Aaron in the face. Aaron twisted away,

and Robin launched a kick at his unprotected back.

Aaron dodged low, so he was almost flat on the floor while sweeping out with his foot,

attempting to trip Robin. Robin narrowly avoided the kick by leaping upward, but his momentum

still carried him forwards. Aaron twisted around, raising his staff just in time to push Robin

away. Robin sailed over Aaron's head, landing heavily on his back. Both fighters scrambled to

their feet, an edged back momentarily, panting to regain their breath.

Robin recovered first, and swung a wide strike at Aaron, hoping to stay outside his

opponent's attack radius. Aaron dodged by back flipping, and continued to back-flip until

launched himself upward onto a balance beam. Holding his staff in one hand, he jumped and

grabbed onto a climbing bar mounted onto the wall. He climbed upward using a combination of

flips and other acrobatic maneuvers, until he perched on a wooden pole just below the ceiling.

Robin considered following the same path, but instead drew his grappling hook and launched it

skyward, and then drew himself up to the same level as Aaron.

Robin balanced easily on the wooden pole that extended outward from the wall, and said, "You

shouldn't waste so much energy climbing." He figured the fight was as good as won, with his

opponent backed against a wall, thirty feet above the ground.

Aaron's eyes narrowed to slits as he replied, "You should be more careful were you

follow." Aaron swung his staff, aiming just in front of his own feet, smashing right through the

pole.

Robin plummeted downward, crashing shoulder first into the mats below. He lay there in

pain for just a second, before throwing himself sideways. Aaron's heel slammed into the mats

inches behind Robin's head. Robin backed away, numbness spreading through his left shoulder.

He flicked three birdarangs at Aaron in quick succession, hoping to buy himself some time.

Aaron, dodged the first one, but grabbed some small disc-shaped weights off a nearby

rack, and tossing them like frisbees. The birdarangs and the weights met with a resounding

'clang' and ricocheted off of each other. Aaron grabbed another, much larger weight from the

rack, and heaved it at Robin. Robin dodged the weight and jumped behind an exercise machine

to gain cover from the projectiles. He stepped out from behind the machine just long enough to

toss a smoke grenade at Aaron. The grenade landed right at Aaron's feet, and exploded,

surrounding him with tear gas.

As soon as Aaron realized what was happening, him shut his eyes and held his breath,

avoiding most of the harmful effects. With his eyes and lungs burning, he leapt upward,

stepping off the bar on a barbell set. Aaron flew through the air, clearing the cloud of tear gas,

and instinctively slashing downward with his staff.

Robin got his own staff up in time to block, but the power behind Aaron's strike was so

strong it snapped Robin's staff in two.

Robin tossed away the pieces, and drew his own metal bo-staff. He attacked quickly,

while Aaron was still trying to see through eyes that were blurry from the tear gas. Aaron parried

the blows weakly, until Robin punched him on the chin, and then snapped his hand back,

knocking the staff from Aaron's hands. Robin brought his staff in for a cross-body strike as

Aaron charged forward wildly. The hit barely slowed Aaron down as he body slammed Robin,

knocking him down. As Robin fell he punched upward, catching Aaron in the stomach, flipping

him over his head. Aaron landing behind Robin and snatched up the pieces of the broken staff,

one in each hand.

Realizing his foe was no longer even partially blind; Robin tried to stay at a distance,

swinging from far away with his staff. Aaron crossed the broken pieces over his head, catching

Robin's staff in an X and flicking it away. Diving in close he pummeled Robin's torso with

blows from the shortened pieces of wood. He snapped one arm straight, catching Robin in the

eye with a clenched fist. Robin stumbled back, dropping to one knee. Aaron came after him,

hoping to end the fight. Robin suddenly leapt up, kicking with all his strength. He caught Aaron

high in the chest, and now it was Aaron's turn to stumble. He flew backwards trying to regain

his footing until a weight machine stopped him short. Aaron crashed into the machine, a sharp

end of one the bars slamming into the middle of his back.

Aaron crashed to the floor, facedown. His back felt as if a spear had been driven into it.

Using only his arms, Aaron pushed himself onto his back, just in time to see the end of Robin's

staff come whistling towards his face.

Robin pulled the final blow, his pole stopping just above Aaron's nose. The entire gym

was silent as the combatants eyed each other warily. Seeing that Robin had won, Cyborg and

Beast Boy came running over, shouting their congratulations. Cyborg patted Robin on the back

and Beast Boy gave him the thumbs-up sign. Robin reached down to offer Aaron a hand up, but

Aaron scorned the help, and pulled himself to his feet using the exercise machine for support. He

and Robin eyed each other warily for a long moment before Aaron spoke, "Alright, I'll answer

your questions."


	4. The Grand Tour

Aaron turned and began to walk, slowly, towards the main entrance, indicating that they should follow.

Robin said, "Okay, first question. When-"

Suddenly Beast Boy cut in "How old are you anyway? 'Cause you look really young."

Aaron turned his gaze towards Beast Boy without answering, as Beast Boy's chatter turned to stuttering. "Y'know...its just that you um, don't usually...that is...normally...um, well, you're running your own company." Beast Boy trailed off into silence

Aaron stayed quiet a moment longer before replying, "I'm 26. I was an employee for this company when its previous owner who was also its founder retired, and he left it to me. If all you wanted was my business history I could have had my secretary send you our company's brochure."

"No, as a matter of fact we do have more important questions," stated Robin, who was also glaring a Beast Boy. "Like where you were on the night of the break in at HAL electronics."

By now they were next to the entrance, and Aaron pushed a small panel in the wall. The panel popped open and several glasses slid out on a tray. He handed one to Robin, and drank what was in another one himself. He then replied, "I really hope you not considering that I was the one who stole those computer chips. I'm a business man, not a common criminal."

"Still, it was your company that supplied the security, and all the evidence so far points to an inside job."

Aaron considered this for a moment, and then nodded. "That, however, is impossible. But you don't have to take my word for it, I'll show you." Aaron continued to talk as he stepped behind a partition to change. "The first thing to understand is that this company is not just a security firm. That branch, while decently profitable, is also newest edition to a corporation that deals in quite a number of international functions." Aaron stepped back around the partition, now wearing navy blue slacks, a gray jacket, and a tie.

The group left the room, and headed down a corridor to an elevator. As they rode the elevator up, Aaron explained the security systems. "The original framework and computer programs were developed by myself and three others. Soon after the program was up and running, however, one guy dropped dead of a heart attack and another had one to many drinks at the bar before trying to drive himself home on the freeway. The third guy, Damien, was a little...unbalanced...to begin with, and he really started losing it. He would go on and on about "living life to the fullest" and "never experiencing everything life had to offer". The last time I heard from him he was readying his second attempt to climb Mt. Everest. Anyway, when we were writing the program we didn't trust each other, so we each worked separately, and only shared information when we debugged the system. I only understand about a third of the system."

The elevator stopped and the four stepped out into a carpeted foyer. Several doors led away, but Aaron headed towards the one straight ahead. He pushed the door open, and the Titans stepped through a little hesitantly, unsure of what to expect. They were on a raised dais, overlooking dozens of desks filled with men and women working at desks and on computers. A few of the nearer ones glanced up, but most continued typing, writing, or rushing about. "Each of these people is overseeing a portion of a different security system. Unlike most computer programs, this one is manually checked, making immune to viruses and hacking. Each system is scanned in its entirety every 6 minutes."

"Six minutes is a lot more time than the thief used last night." Commented Robin.

Aaron looked annoyed, like he was explaining something to a young child. "You don't understand. Some part or parts of the system are being checked constantly, a problem anywhere should have sent up warning flags."

"So why didn't it?" questioned Beast Boy.

"If we knew that, I wouldn't have my entire staff in here working overtime checking out the system."

"I still don't see what makes this particularly different from other security programs", said Cyborg.

Aaron thought for a moment, and then replied, "This is the smallest of the three nerve centers for our operating system, with the other two being in Asia. Each person at a computer gets a piece of a security system to check, without knowing what specific system out of the 56 facilities we operate on. He or she may run through what looks like a single complete system, but it may actually be many different systems. It may also use the same check on two different systems, or it could be only a simulation. Just to be on the safe side, I also have 16 operatives on plains or trains traveling around the world, with a random connection awaiting them upon arrival. To hack into their computers, you'd have to be within 20 feet of their wireless transmitters. All the randomization makes it impossible to get into a single system long enough to do any damage, and if some one did manage to change something, it would simply reset at the next check."

Robin said, "It all seems like it would be very expensive to run this operation. Your company hasn't had problems with money, has it?"

Aaron smiled slightly, as if at some private joke. "While I'm standing hear talking to you, I'm making $400 an hour. When I go home and go to bed, I'll still be making $400 an hour. I'll make it when I eat, when I travel, even when I go on vacation. If the company was in financial trouble, do you think I would be making that much money? And since I market this system why would I go out of my way to disprove its effectiveness? I know what your doing; your looking for motive. You still think I'm a criminal."

Robin glared at him and said, "Yes, especially since you weren't very forthcoming with the police."

Aaron frowned. "If I let the police in here they'd insist on poking around in every closet and office, and they'd want me to supply them with guides so wouldn't miss anything. They bother my employees, they're rude, and they probably cordon off sections of the building for "special attention" and let them sit there for months. The police would cause more problems than the criminals hacking my system!" Aaron's face was flushed, and he took a deep breath to calm himself. "If you still don't believe me, I'll show you whatever you want. Just pick any random corridor, and we'll check all the offices to make sure I'm not packaging drugs or laundering money." The sarcasm was heavy in his voice.

No, that won't be necessary," answered Robin politely, "but there is one other thing we could use."

"What?"

"A copy of the security program."

Aaron didn't reply. He didn't say anything. He just stood there, unmoving.

Cyborg leaned towards him. "Yo, did you hear us? Are you listening?"

Aaron nodded. "I heard what he said, but I don't think you know what you're asking. This program is worth millions, and protects some of the most dangerous and expensive stuff on the planet. If my competitors or enemies get a hold of it suicide would start looking very attractive."

Robin replied "Were not going to make it public or anything; we'd keep it amongst ourselves."

"What would I say to my investors if they found out I've been giving away free copies?"

"Tell them we're helping debug the system. If we spot anything in the program that is a weakness, we'll tell you."

"I must be in a generous mood today; I'm willing to make another deal. Since the main security program is very complicated I doubt you'd learn anything useful anyway. I can, however, give you a demo version, which is essentially a 'read only' copy of the system for this building."

"You said you'd make a deal," stated Robin. "What do you want from us?"

Aaron smiled, slightly, "There _is _one other security system in the city that I believe rivals mine."

"I don't think I like were this is going," said Cyborg.

Ignoring him, Aaron continued, "In exchange I want a copy of the security system in Titan Tower."

"No way!" shouted Cyborg. "Not a chance"

"Are you nuts?!" yelled Beast Boy, "There's people who would kill for that information, literally."

Aaron just looked bored. "Ever hear of corporate espionage? All you guys have to deal with are psychos with superpowers. I deal with the richest psychos on the planet; they're the people with the money to hire the villains you fight. And one other interesting piece of information; for the last three decades, the average number of assassination attempts on the life of a CEO of a major corporation has been nearly double that made on the President."

"Alright," consented Robin, "You can take care of yourself, but what about our security system?"

Aaron spread his hands disarmingly, "As long as my security system remains entirely in your control, and no one knows about it, I can guarantee the same for yours."

Robin nodded. "Fine, it's a deal."

Aaron smiled, broadly this time. "Excellent. Gentlemen if you would follow me this way, please." He walked back to the elevator.

As Robin, Beast Boy, and Cyborg returned to the tower, Robin could feel himself stiffening up slightly, and bruises were beginning to make themselves known. He only took slight satisfaction in hoping Aaron was feeling the same way.

When they stepped off the elevator, Raven, who was sitting on the couch, reading, spotted them. "Were have you three been? And what happened to Robin?" she asked, noticing a black eye forming around the edge of his mask.

"Robin got beat-up by a guy in a business suit" chuckled Beast Boy.

"Maybe you wanna start a little farther back?"

"Well, we got went off to find out about this break in last night, and on our ay there we stopped at a computer store so Cyborg could find dome info on our guy and...wait! I forgot to stop and get a copy of my game!" Beast Boys dashed off shouting, "Gotta call the store gotta reserve a copy!"

Raven's expression didn't change, but she still managed to look quizzical. "OK...some one else want to explain things?"

Cyborg held up the disk Aaron had given them. "I wanna get started looking over this."

In the background Beast Boy was shouting into a phone. "How can you be out?! There were three-hundred copies this morning?! What about the waiting list? ... ITS HOW LONG?!"

Robin nodded. "Fine, I can explain...but where's Starfire, she may want to hear this, too?"

Starfire flew out of the kitchen, holding a tray with several brown, crumbly circles on it. "Glorious! I have finally perfected an Earth recipe! Will you try some?" She offered the tray to Robin. "Um, ok, the cookies look good, Star."

Starfire seemed upset, "It is supposed to be eggplant parmesean."

Robin cringed, "Maybe Raven would like to try-"

Raven shook her head. "Not me, I'm on a diet."


	5. Interim

Hello again. Sorry for the short chapter, will post the next one within a day.

(/)

As the sun set on the city, it cast a magnificent glow on the tall skyscrapers that filled the downtown business district. The red sunset lit the steel and glass so that the city shone like a jewel. Atop one of the tallest buildings stood a figure dressed all in black. The fading sunlight sparkled off his glittering blue hair. With the sun at his back he stared out at the city below him. "What a marvelous place. And all of it can be my playground."

(/)

The next morning Robin was up early, but there was already a "message waiting" signal on the main screen. Robin pressed the play button, and the police chief's voice blared out into the room. As Robin scrambled for the volume, he inwardly cursed Beast Boy for leaving it up after last nights video games. Since he had missed the first part, Robin replayed the message in its entirety. "_Robin, we found the cause of last nights problem at HAL electronics. No leads yet on suspects, but give me a call as soon as we get this."_

Robin dialed in the number and a moment later the Police chief's haggard face came into view. He looked he hadn't slept at all, or if he had, he'd done it in his clothes. "Robin, glad to see you got my message...we had another break-in last night."

"Already? Where? And what was taken this time?"

"At Cyberdine Systems, across town. And we're still not sure what, if anything, was stolen because in addition to totally trashing several offices, our mysterious crook stole the security tapes as well...oh yeah, this was after slipping past eighteen security guards, four guard dogs, a laser grid, and a hallway filled with pressure sensitive flooring."

"Damn...should we come over?"

"Nah, the crime scene looks pretty clean."

"OK, so what's up at HAL electronics?"

"They found the cause of the black-out in the security tapes." Capt. Samuel pulled a crumpled piece of paper from a jacket pocket. "If you want the specifics you gotta talk to the engineers, but I managed to get this, which a normal person can almost understand." He read off the sheet of paper, "The failure of the general system was initiated by double alert from the warning circuits. A short (cause as of yet unknown) in the secondary circuit set off the maintenance signal. The problem was not corrected immediately, however, and a short in the primary system (cause also as of yet unknown) then caused the alarm to crash and freeze before rerouting to the third redundant backup." Capt. Samuel yawned.

"You look tired", said Robin. "Busy night?"

"Yeah, the usual drug busts and minor thefts, but they all got a ton of paperwork to fill out for. That and now I'm doing crowd control here at HAL."

"What for?"

"The armies of lawyers that are down here threatening suit and counter-suit." He moved to one side to let Robin see the scene behind him. Dozens of men in suits were rushing around waving sheaves of papers and shouting at each other. All of a sudden several started pushing and swinging briefcases. As several officers moved in to stop it, Capt. Samuel turned to help. His last words were "What a pain in the -" before the transmission cut off.

(/)

The next two days were quite, but on the third morning Robin woke up to find another message from Capt. Samuel. When Robin called him up, he got interesting news.

"The mysterious thief hit not one but two places last night. But at one place it looks like all he did was trash the assembly line, and at the other the only things missing are some financial records, which may have nothing to do with our guy anyway."

"So, what're they up to? Could he be looking for something?"

"I doubt it, all the companies deal in different branches of electronics, and the last one only works with massed produced merchandise, like TVs. Our criminal psychologist things this have all been for fun."

"Just for fun?"

"Sure, most of the damage is vandalism. We see normal people do it all the time, and I bet you know at least a couple psychos like that."

Robin nodded "If that's what this person is up to, it looks our they're getting bolder."

"Yup, now it's the old waiting game."

"Agreed, as soon as they make one mistake we'll be there to pick them up."


	6. Fun With Electricity

Hey, y'all I'm back. This last chapter is a good bit longer than the last one, and I hope you like it because I spent lots of time tinkering with it. (even rewriting the whole fight after I didn't like it the first time) Anyway, I would've liked to have more chapters posted by now, but I've been super busy, and haven't had time to write them out. So, I'll try to get the next up by monday evening, but if it's not up until then you'll probably have to wait 'till next weekend. Also, I want to repost some of the previous chapters with corrections. I you review and point out things like grasmmar, or pour word usage, or anything just plain confusing, it would be a great help. (remember, constructive criticisms are the best)  
-- Mekkie

(/)

Although night had set, the city was never truly dark. Light spilled out onto the street, and across

the entrances of restaurants. People walked to and fro, laughing and chatting with their friends.

No one ever looked up because no one had a reason to. Some one, however, was looking

down. A shadow ran quickly over the rooftops, clearing the gaps between buildings with ease.

The figure finally stopped, and looked down at the museum which stood alone near the city

center. The street's here were wide, and the gap between his perch and the museum was nearly a

hundred feet. In his hand he held a staff, which served as a combination utility belt and weapon.

He held it to one shoulder like a rifle, and sited down its length. He pressed the trigger and a

grappling hook shot from the tip. It wrapped around one of the ornate statues that decorated the

roof. He lifted the other end off his shoulder, and opened up the back end, from which he pulled

a clip. He secured one end around a protrusion on the roof, and then leaped off the roof, sliding

along cable, which ran through the center off the staff. He landed on the museum roof with grace,

and made his way to one of the skylights. It was the work of a moment to splice and cut the

wires, so as not to set off the alarm, and then opened up the large glass window. With hi staff in

hand, he jumped in, dropping nearly 60 feet to the floor below. After looking around he made his

way to one of the stand-alone display cases, which held a jewel-encrusted crown. He ran his

hands along the edge of the case, until a small panel popped open. He pulled a wire from his staff

and plugged it into the outlet under the panel. On his staff a small piece of metal slid back to

reveal a screen and keypad. He typed in a few commands and a second later the case let out a

little hiss as it unlocked. He stood up to collect his prize, but suddenly a voice blared out.

"**Unauthorized access, alarm will activate in 10 seconds**." He glanced around, nearly

panicking, until he spotted a small dial and keypad on the wall, nearly hidden by the legs of a tall

statue. The voiced continued to count down the time "**5...4...3...2...**" The end of the staff

smashed into the control panel and the voice died. The thief had thrown his staff like a javelin, so

it rested on the pedestal between the legs of the statue, and had crushed the alarm.

He let out a sigh of relief, and returned to the case in front of him. He carefully lifted the glass

top off, before flinging it away. It shattered on the stone floor. He lifted the crown out, studying

the jewels embedded in it. "What a marvelous piece of craftsmanship, a crown fit for a king."

He jumped, and nearly dropped the crown when a voice rang out from the darkness. "I think it's

a bit gaudy myself." He turned to face the darkened archway, from which the voice had come.

Out of the darkness stepped Robin. "Nevertheless, it's staying in the museum." Robin looked at

the figure before him. He was dressed all in black and, in the near darkness, hard to see clearly.

Robin could tell however, that he was young and tall. Rather than the form fitting suits that most

heroes and villains preferred, his clothes hung slightly loosely on his thin frame. The most starling

thing about him, however, were his hair and his eyes. His hair was bluish-gray, and sparkled even

in the dark. His eyes, or rather, his mask, was silver. It looked almost like a pair of mirrored

sunglasses, even having arms that wrapped around the side of his head. Robin asked "Are you

the one whose been breaking into those electronics companies?"

"Yup, that was me alright, and not one of them was even that hard to get into. Rather

disappointing, in a way."

"There's kind of a difference between stealing computer chips and ancient artifacts, is there?"

The figure chuckled, "Robin, you've got me pegged all wrong; I do it for the challenge...and the

thrill."

"Well, whoever you are, you're going-"

"Oh no, I haven't even introduced myself, I'm such a bad host." The figure gave an elegant,

sweeping bow. "My name is Volt."

"So, are going to return the crown, or do I have to take it from you?"

Volt held out the crown in one hand. "Here, you can have the old thing, I don't really like it

anyway."

Robin was rather surprised, but he reached for the crown anyway. As his fingers closed on the

edge, Volt suddenly jerked the crown back, throwing Robin off balance. Faster than Robin could

see, Volt punched him in the face. Robin crashed backwards onto the floor. "Ha! Not!" Volt

laughed in victory.

"That was a bad idea." Cyborg stepped out of the hallway on the left.

"And a cheap shot, too." BeastBoy slipped out of the hallway on the right.

"It is unwise to hurt my friend." "Yeah...what they said." Starfire and Raven drifted in from the

upper level balcony.

"You had the chance to come peaceably, but you just lost it." Robin was already back on his feet.

Volt looked at the superheroes surrounding him. "What's the fun in going quietly? You want the

crown...then catch!" He tossed the artifact straight up. Instinctively, all eyes flowed its upward

arc. Robin jerked his head down as soon as he caught a flicker a movement from the corner of

his eye, but it was already too late. Volt leaped across the floor at Cyborg, both feet slamming

into Cyborg's chest, driving him backwards as Volt rebounded towards a wall covered in a

sculpted frieze. He landed several feet above the floor, and actually started running straight up the

wall; he was moving so fast he didn't even use his hands. In less than a second he was at the

balcony level, and he back flipped away from the wall. Volt somersaullted through the air, and his

hands were only inches from catching the crown when Starfire got to it first; she flew in and

snatched the crown away from his grasp. Volt landed cat-like on a windowsill. As Raven

swooped in front of him, he launched himself out like a human missile. Raven was caught off

guard, and only had time to fling up a shield in front of her. Volt's hands, crashed into the shield,

but instead of falling, he used his momentum to twist over the shield and drop behind Raven. She

hardly knew what had happened when he grabbed her ankles, jerking her out of the sky. Volt

landed graceful on the ground, but Raven crashed into a display case; glass and plastic flying

everywhere as she slumped to the ground. BeastBoy charged in his gorilla form, swinging massive

fists at Volt. Volt dodged the first several effortlessly, before grabbing a fist and using it to slide

along the ground between BeastBoy's legs. As he slid he foot lashed out, catching Cyborg in the

ankles. Cyborg, who had been rushing to help, now flew headfirst into BeastBoy, and the two

collapsed in a tangle of flailing arms and limbs. Volt popped to his feet, and bareley managed to

block Robin's punch. After he got his balance, however, he had no trouble defending himself. He

even yawned, his incredible speed allowing him to block Robin's kicks and punches one handed.

Robin hopped back two steps, and drew his bo staff. He swung a mighty overhead stroke at

Volt, who simply caught it with his hands. Robin twisted and pulled, trying to free his staff, but

Volt's grip was surprisingly strong.

Volt grinned broadly, saying, "You see this as a weapon, but I see this as a portable lightning

rod." Blue sparks crackled around his fingers, and a second later Robin felt the electricity surge

through his body. Robin was knocked backwards by the force of the jolt, leaving his staff in

Volt's hands. Volt began to advance on Robin's prone form, but a starbolt flashed towards his

head, and only a last minute flinch to one side saved him.

Having deposited the crown away from the fight, Starfire now returned, flying in to attack. Volt

spun around, swinging the staff at Starfire's head. She saw she couldn't avoid it, so she jerked to

a halt, throwing up her arms and shutting her eyes in preparation for the hit. It never came. She

opened her eyes to see Volt standing in front of her, holding the staff an inch from her head.

He smiled maliciously. "Gotcha!" He touched the staff lightly to her shoulder, but the surge of

electricity knocked her to the floor. He spun back the other way, but not in time to escape

Cyborg. Cyborg's fist smashed through the staff, and caught Volt in the chest, knocking him

backwards. Cyborg then swung his other fist, but a second before it would have connected, Volt

seemingly vanished and Cyborg's fist smashed into the wall instead. As the dust and stone fell

away, Cyborg saw Volt, standing on his arm; he had dodged the punch entirely. Volt's foot

kicked out, catching Cyborg under the chin and catapulting him backwards. As Cyborg crashed

to the floor, Volt turned to meet BeastBoy, who was charging as a bull. Just as BeastBoy would

have plowed into him, Volt grabbed onto BeastBoy's horns with his hands, using them to leap

over his back. As Volt sailed trough the air, he reached down and a small spark jumped from his

hand to BeastBoy, who slumped to the floor as his hind legs went numb.

Cyborg was also back on his feet, and was aiming his sonic blaster at Volt from less then 20 feet

away. His shot, however, missed. Volt was zipping along, jumping, twisting, and spinning, neatly

avoiding every blast. Although the blasts were all near misses, Cyborg could see that Volt was

toying with him, only pretending to be in danger. Volt had worked his way around to Cyborg's

side and leaping off a pillar, he arrowed in, hands sparkling with energy. His excitement, however,

turned to surprise when he saw Starfire, she was standing shoulder to shoulder with Cyborg.

They were almost back-to-back and, from the front, nearly hidden from view. Now, however,

she had a clear shot, and Volt couldn't change direction in midair. He arched his back, but could

not entirely avoid the starbolts, and one caught him in the side. His momentum kept him flying

through the air, but then he slammed into the ground, and skidded across the floor to crash into a

suit of armor. Starfire and Cyborg advanced cautiously, as Volt disentangled himself from the pile

of armor pieces. He was kneeling on the floor, with one arm supporting him and the other

clutched around his side; he groaned a little in pain. Starfire's hands and eyes glowed green, and

Cyborg had his blaster fully charged, both ready to fire in an instant.

Cyborg grinned down at their opponent. "Hey speedy, not so hot now, are ya?"

Volt looked up at them, and his grimace turned into a grin. "You should'a shot me when you had

the chance, Tin Man."

His legs shot out, throwing him clear as starbolts and sonic blasts turned the stone into rubble

right behind him. In a flash he was up and moving, completely unharmed. Cyborg and Starfire,

however kept up a heavy stream of fire, forcing Volt to keep moving. Although BeastBoy was

still flopping around like a fish out of water, Robin and Raven had gotten to their feet. As Raven

was moving to join Starfire and Cyborg, Robin drew several freeze disks from his belt and zinged

them at Volt. As a blast shattered the wall in front of him, Volt leapt up, and kicked a piece of the

debris back at Robin. It collided with the freeze disks in midair, and continued towards Robin,

who threw up his hands to block it. The frozen chunk of concrete shattered when it hit, vaporizing

into a miniature blizzard which temporarily blinded Robin, so he didn't see the kick that followed

it. Volt knocked Robin off his feet, and his head hit the base of a statue with a resounding **crack**.

Volt was now directly between Cyborg and Starfire, and Robin. The two didn't dare shoot,

knowing that if they missed, they'd hit their teammate. Volt seized the opportunity and charged.

Starfire held her shots until he was nearly upon them, then let fly. Volt, however, was ready and

leapt up and over the blasts, and right over Cyborg's head. Cyborg's reflexes kicked in, and he

took the first clear shot: straight up. Volt twisted himself so that the shot missed and blasted the

ceiling, large chunks of which prceeded to rain down towards the heroes. Raven darted in,

throwing up a barrier around the three of them. Concrete, plaster, and steel slammed into the

dome of black energy, scattering rubble around. When the dust started to settle, Raven lowered

her shield and the three peered into the surrounding gloom. Cyborg pointed his blaster cannon out

at some suspicious looking shadows and stared to say "Where did he-" when Volt dropped in

out of nowhere. His heel caught Starfire in the middle of her back, and his hands landed on

Cyborg's shoulders. Cyborg felt his circuits freeze as uncontained electricity poured through him.

As he crashed to the floor, Volt had already turned his attention to Raven. Using her powers, she

flung pieces of rubble at Volt, who easily avoided them, working his way closer all the time.

When she finally tossed a huge chunk of the ceiling at Volt, he jumped up on it, using it to launch

himself through the air. Raven gathered her energy to form shields on her hands, and blocked

Volts attack. Sparks and energy flew as each sought to overcome the other. Then Volt saw

Raven's eyes twitch to look over his shoulder. Even though it was only for a second, he knew no

one would look away from a fight like that, unless they were looking at something else.

BeastBoy had finally found something that didn't need legs. He had morphed into a giant snake,

and struck with lightning speed at Volt's back. Volt flung himself sideways, missing being

skewered by BeastBoy's fangs by inches. His loose shirt, however, caught the long fangs, and

jerked him around is it tore away. BeastBoy rolled about on the ground, the shredded shirt stuck

in his mouth, but Raven didn't even glance at him. She stared at Volt. His chest and arms were

covered in glowing blue lines that seemed to connect and separate in a confusing, yet familiar

pattern. The lines were densest along his arms and chest, thinning out over the joints. The lines

also vanished down the top of his black pants, and into the edges of his black gloves. Those

members of the Teen Titans who were still conscious (not including BeastBoy) gaped in silence.

When a voice finally rang out, it was Volt's. "Damn...now I need a new shirt." Hi hands shot out,

grabbing Raven by the shoulders. She shrieked as electricity blasted through her, then collapsed

on the floor. Volt dashed across the floor to where he had slung his staff earlier. It was the same

statue that Robin laid at the foot of, slowly coming to his senses. Volt grabbed one end of the

staff, and jerked it around. The other end slammed into the leg of the statue, which shattered into

dozens of pieces. Robbed of its support, the huge stone statue teetered to on side, and then fell,

straight towards Robin. An orange and purple streak zipped across the floor, screaming, "Robin!

Noooooo!" Starfire scooped Robin up, diving into a niche in the wall, only inches ahead of the

statue, which thundered down, covering the opening with rubble.

Volt dashed along the floor, scooping up a silver and emerald tiara. Leaping onto the windowsill

of a shattered window. He called back to the Titans, "We'll have to do that again some time.

Until then, I'll just keep this as a souvenir." He jumped down outside the window and was gone

into the night.


	7. Breakfast

>Robin pushed rubble off the top of the pile so he and Starfire could climb out of the recess in the wall. Cyborg pushed himself

up, but one arm was unresponsive, which probably meant a short circuit somewhere. BeastBoy rolled across the ground as a

monkey trying to get the remains of Volt's shirt out of his teeth by pulling on it with both his hands and feet. Starfire flew over

to help Raven who had pushed herself up on her elbows. As Starfire lifted Raven up, Raven muttered, "I'm fine", but as soon

as Starfire let go, she collapsed again. Starfire barely caught her before she hit the ground.

>"Oh no! Raven, you are hurt!" Starfire cried out.

>Raven pulled herself up and floated in the air. "No, I'm really fine…I just can't feel my legs."

>Cyborg looked over from fixing his arm. "That's from the electric shocks; besides being painful they apparently act like a

stun-gun and cause temporary paralysis."

>BeastBoy shifted back to his human from and garbled out, "I ud ueth um elp 'ere!"

>Robin pulled a small knife from his belt and tugged at the cloth in Beastboy's mouth, cutting off a small piece. He put it in his

belt as he turned away.

>"Whaug?" BeastBoy choked. "Faf if?"

>"That's all I need for analysis."

* * *

>The Titans returned to the tower in a rather sullen mood; most went off to bed, except for Robin, who slipped off to examine 

the piece of cloth he had obtained, and BeastBoy, who was still digging pieces of Volt's shirt out of his teeth.

>The next morning started out quite, but by 10 o'clock or so, BeastBoy and Cyborg dragged themselves to the kitchen to get

something to eat. Starfire, however, had beaten them to it, and the two male Titans were greeted with a scene of devastation

that rivaled even Johnny Rancid's frequent attempts at wholesale chaos. Dirty bowls and plates lay everywhere, the oven was

dripping a foamy green liquid, and the dishwasher was smoking.

>Starfire looked up sheepishly. "Good morning friends! I was trying to make some cakes with pans, but it is not working well."

>"That's OK", said BeastBoy, as he tried to usher the well-meaning but totally incompetent alien out of the kitchen. "You just

go sit down, I'll fix us up something good."

>"Not more tofu", Cyborg growled, "After last night we need somethin' healthy".

>"Hey, Tofu is healthy".

>"It might be (although that's questionable), but it tastes like horse-feed!"

>"Well, maybe some of us like horse-feed! "

>The two were just about to start really going at it when Robin walked in, breaking up the tension. "I've got good news and

bad news."

>Raven drifted in behind him, a steaming mug in one hand.

>Cryborg had found a not-to-stale box of donuts and was stuffing them in his mouth, but he still managed to ask Raven,

"Where'd you get something to eat?"

>"Starbucks. Now if everyone's stomachs are satisfied shall we move on to the next topic?"

>"Actually…" started Cyborg, but Robin cut him off.

>"I analyzed the material in Volt's shirt, and this is what I found." He pressed on button on the TV remote to bring up a picture

of the cloth fragment. "The fibers are a synthetic polymer, with a pentagonal outer layer and a star-like arrangements of internal

supports. After they were woven together, they were also melted slightly so they stick together, making this stuff nearly like

armor. That's how Volt was able to shrug off our attacks."

>"If that's the good news, I'd love to hear the bad", muttered BeastBoy.

>Robin continued, "The bad news is the material must be a new prototype, because it doesn't match anything I've been able to

find on the commercial market. So far it's untraceable."

>There was a brief moment of silence, until BeastBoy dropped a heavy iron skillet and startled everyone out of their thoughts.

"That's great, but I'd much prefer bad news on a full stomach."

Cyborg scrambled back into the kichen. "You'd better not be makin' more veggie tofu!"

>"And what if I am?"

>Starfire drifted over, "Please, I to would like to help, yes?"

>Robin sighed, and Raven, without a hint of a smile, said, "Glad to see everything's normal."

* * *

>A short while later, everyone sat around the table, eating a variety of more or less edible breakfast food. The Conversation 

was unusually subdued because BeastBoy and Cyborg weren't speaking to each other. Cyborg instead had pulled out a large

folder and was idly flipping through it. Starfire's curiosity soon got the better of her, and she leaned over to have a look.

>"Friend Cyborg, what is it that you are reading?"

>Cyborg glanced up, slightly startled, "What?…oh, this? I got the one of the detectives at the police department to send me a

bunch of stuff from their investigation into those thefts. These are just the reports on a couple of the people from the

companies."

>Careful there, Cyborg, "You're starting to sound like Robin", quipped BeastBoy.

>Robin looked at him suspiciously, "Anything on Aaron Faserro, perhaps?"

>"Uh…" Cyborg seemed at a loss for words, but Raven, who had been leaning over from the other direction to glance at the

folder, answered for him. "Not just something, all of it, apparently."

>Cyborg frowned. "Maybe that guy just rubs me the wrong way, but I can't help feeling that we should look into him more."

>Robin nodded, "Its alright, I don't particularly like him either, besides, it might lead us to something else…uncovered anything

interesting?"

>Cyborg shook his head, "Not really, his track record is perfectly clean…he's got an interesting history, though."

>Starfire smiled gleefully, "Do not keep us in the suspense, tell us what you have found!"

>Cyrborg shuffled through part of the pile of papers until he pulled out a few handwritten sheets. Alright, here goes, I can't

guarantee its the best breakfast material, though."

>"Aaron Faserro was the first and only child of two perfectly average middle-class parents, living near Washington D.C. When

he was only three, however, both his parents died in a bombing of the government building where they worked. He lived there

until he was twelve, when it was discovered he had a rare medical condition that was too expensive for his foster family to

treat, so he was moved to a government-run orphanage. He started attracting attention when he got a high-school GED at the

age of 14. By sixteen he apparently secured his own legal custody, and moved out. He started taking night classes at a local

university, and by 18 he got degrees in neurology and computer programming. He got a job and kept studying, and over the

next three years earned degrees in everything from classical literature to nuclear physics to ancient history. He got hired as a

junior partner at Morgen Lyn Inc. when he hacked into their computer system and crashed their network by downloading 12

million copies of his application. When the former owners decided to sell the company, he manipulated the various contracts so

as to give himself a 51 share of the stock, meaning he effectively owns the entire company."

>"I don't suppose any of its been illegal?" Robin asked.

>"Nope, its all legal, if just barely in some cases."

>BeastBoy, whose attention had started to wander about halfway through Cyborg's monologue, snapped, "Great, so know

we know all the greatest gossip on the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The more important question is, who wants more

Tofu?"

>The other four Titans all suddenly murmured things about being full, and quickly excused themselves.


	8. Raise the Roof!

"Its cold and windy out and I could be at home curled up around the nice warm glow of the TV, so someone remind me again why we're out here!" BeastBoy's voice crackled out of the communicators.

Robin sighed; they'd been over this at least half-a-dozen times already, and he was seriously thinking about getting a manual override to stop incoming transmission for the radio system. The leader of the Titans, however, had long ago accepted that this was just one of the annoyances of leadership, and explained the plan to BeastBoy _again_. "Volt strikes and leaves quickly, so we have a better chance of catching him if were already out and waiting. That's why we split up and spread out around the city."

Raven's voice drifted over the radio, "As much as I hate to agree with BeastBoy, it is windy and miserable out here, maybe Volt decided to take the night off."

Robin didn't answer. It was almost midnight, and he knew if he pushed his team to hard they wouldn't be in a position to fight trouble when it came along. The sky was cloudy, and it would probably rain later that evening. As much as Robin hated giving up, he was about to call it quits…when a short, sharp "bang", followed by a much deeper "BOOOM!" echoed across the city. Robin looked up from his communicator to see a huge fireball rising from the downtown business district. One of the office buildings was belching smoke, even as part of the structure started to collapse.

"Titans, get over there now!" shouted Robin.

SKG

As Robin approached the building that had exploded, he saw the city's more conventional emergency response units, such as fire trucks and an ambulance, pull up. While he hoped they weren't needed, Robin was glad to have them there. He found Starfire and BeastBoy already at the base of the structure, and moments later they were joined by Cyborg and Raven. Looking up at the tower, Robin slowly realized that it was the headquarters of the Morgen Lyn company, the building he, Cyborg, and BeastBoy had been in only days before. Looking up at the damaged edifice, Robin tired to determine what had happened. It looked as if one of the upper floors had blown out, and the four or five floors above it had collapsed in on themselves. As they Titans were about to start doing what they could to help out, a helicopter dropped out of the clouds above the building. Robin saw one of the firemen, a captain by the looks of his uniform, shouting over a radio. From the parts of the conversation he caught, the man didn't sound happy. When he dropped the radio, Robin edged in and asked, "Is that copter yours?"

The captain shook his head. "Nah, it's the companie's; they wanna land someone on the roof."

"That can't be safe; do you know if the rest of the buildings stable?"

The captain shook his head again. "Not sure, but they probably have a better idea than I do, and I really can't stop them."

Robin thanked him and turned back to the rest of the Titans. He looked at Raven and said, "Get us up there."

SKG

Raven had formed a solid platform for Robin and Cyborg to ride up on as BeastBoy and Starfire flew alongside. In moments they reached the top of the building, just in time to see the helicopter hovering about twenty feet above the rubble. It looked as if a most of the roof had dropped straight down, creating large flat areas interspersed with jagged chunks of concrete and steel. In one corner of the building, portions of several floors had not collapsed, leaving columns and offices exposed.

The helicopter apparently couldn't get any lower, because a moment later a figure jumped from the side of the craft, landing on a tall debris pile, and skidding down it in a shower of dust and rubble.

As Cyborg, BeastBoy, and Robin landed on the roof, the helicopter lifted away from the roof and then dropped down below the edge of the building, the pilot obviously struggling to control the craft in the rising wind.

When the Titans approached the lone figure, he turned towards them and Robin's morale sank as he recognized Aaron Faserro. Something in the man's expression made it look like he would be extremely difficult to deal with.

A quick glance at the Titans was apparently all Aaron needed to settle his curiosity, because by the time Robin and the others had drawn within talking-distance, he had returned to examining building.

Robin kept walking until he was nearly even with Aaron. Robin recognized the look of intense concentration in Aaron's eyes; it was one he had often worn himself. Aaron, however, appeared colder, his look more calculating and, if possible, more focused. When Aaron didn't say anything, Robin prompted, "Well?"

Aaron let silence fall again, as if weighing his options before replying. "Well what?"

Robin waved his hand to indicate the expanse before them. "Don't you have anything to say, about all of this?"

Aaron finally gave a half-sideways glance at Robin, his expression easily reading as 'Who are you? My mother?' Instead however, he replied, "Of course I have lots to say, just none of it to you."

Robin's temper was quickly rising, but trying to remain calm, he asked another question. "Any idea on how this happened?"

Aaron said nothing for a long time, as if drawing out the conversation for dramatic effect. Robin had just opened his mouth to insist on a reply when Aaron answered, "If I had to make a guess, I would say with a high-degree of certainty that the explosion started as a fire in the chem-lab. Two weeks ago I had nearly all my junior lab technicians quit at once, and the only people I was able to replace them with on such short notice were a couple of rookie idiots." He shook his head and spoke the next sentence more to himself than to Robin. "I bet they were storing the organic acids near the flammables, again."

Robin was nearly shocked into silence, but as his expression deepened into anger he growled, "It's illegally to have large amounts of dangerous chemicals in the city, for just this reason."

Aaron finally turned to face Robin fully, his face the picture of calm and composure. "Normally, yes; but if you happen to go and take a look at the law books at city hall, you'll find that under certain circumstances, which my company just happens to meet, it is actually legal to possess certain materials for business purposes."

Almost curious, Robin asked, "How did you manage that?"

Aaron grinned. "It's really quite simple. You see, every few years the duly elected officials of our city have to run for reelection, and they often need help with funds for their campaign chests. I make a 'small' donation, and when they get elected they form a committee that in five minutes can add an article or two to a couple laws that happen to be inhibiting my business. And if one official loses, well, that OK, because I just might have made another 'small' donation to his opponents campaign chest, too. Everybody wins."

BeastBoy pointedly looked out at the destruction. "If this is winning, I'd hate to see your idea of a loss."

Aaron attitude suddenly seemed a lot less friendly. "A regrettable accident, to be sure; it won't happen again. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go make an estimate of how much this is going to cost me." Without waiting for an answer, Aaron turned and began to walk away."

"We're not through here, yet." Robin hurried after Aaron, grabbing one sleeve of his brown jacket. Aaron growled back at him, and tried to snatch his arm out of Robin's grip. Both, Aaron and Volt were young and strong, and the brief-tug of war quickly snapped the threads in the jacket and the dress shirt beneath it, and Aaron's sleeve suddenly tore off at the shoulder.

Robin and Aaron stumbled in opposite directions, as everyone's gaze was immediately drawn to Aaron's now bare arm, and the pale blue lines radiating along it from shoulder to wrist.

"I knew there was something weird about this guy!" Cyborg shouted. He was Volt all along!

"Thanks, Cyborg", Raven muttered. "We can see that."

"Damn", Aaron swore. "This just isn't my day."

Four of the Titans quickly readied themselves for a fight, but Robin merely stood and looked at Aaron. Robin was good at reading emotions; it was often useful when dealing with the criminal element in the city, and now he watched the range of emotions that flitted across Aaron's face. Anger, surprise, regret, and distress were the most common. Aaron's face was easily readable as someone who has just seen a carefully crafted plan come crashing down. Aaron looked back at Robin, sneered, and said, "Well?"

Robin spoke just one word, "Why?"

Aaron was surprised, as were the Titans, that Robin had not simply leapt straight into battle; he did not usually worry himself with criminal's motivations until after the fight was won.

"Why? Why do you care?" Aaron turned the question back to Robin, his voice tinged with bitterness.

"You don't seem the type. You had everything. Power, wealth, respect. There was nothing to gain from this crazy scheme."

Aaron let out a short, choked laugh; it wasn't a pleasant sound, and it set Robin's hair on end. "Sure, I had everything…except a life to enjoy it with." The confusion amongst the Titans was evident, so Aaron continued. "No matter what happens tonight, I'll be dead within three or four years at most".

"Your medical condition…?" Robin said, half comment, half question.

Aaron nodded. "I'm surprised you found out at all. I tried to have all records of it destroyed, since all it ever got me was pity, something I didn't need. But since you already found out, I guess it can't hurt to explain a little further. I have a rare medical disorder know as Melsa Syndrome, caused by a single miscoded amino acid produced in the body. It may not sound bad, but that one little amino acid happens to be vital for the proper transmission of signals through the body's neurological pathways. It disrupts the carefully timed pulses sent out by the brain controlling the body's metabolic systems."

BeastBoy scratched his head. "And all that means…what?"

Robin answered, "Its bad. A disruption of entire neurological system could have implications for any number of vital organs and metabolic processes-"

"All of which is very technical and incredibly boring," Aaron cut in. "Lets move on to the far more interesting question which I know you're just dying to ask." The former bitterness and melancholy had vanished from his voice, and a grin was slowly creeping back across his face. "In order to treat the variety of symptoms that arose from this serious illness, I had an array of miniaturized circuits and micro-wires implanted under my skin. This system absorbs the excess bio-electric energy produced by my nervous system, amplifies it, and transmits out at such a frequency so as to override my body's natural, incompatible, signals. Something I had not anticipated, however, was that increasing the strength of the electric signals also increased the concretionary power in my muscles, and boosted my reflexes beyond any natural means."

"And what about that little trick with the electricity in your hands?"

Aaron snapped his fingers and sparks danced along his arm. "Oh, this?" he said, feigning indifference. "Simple static discharge from having several hundred times the normal amount of electricity built up in my system. Now, has your curiosity been sufficiently sated?"

Robin shook his head. "Just one more question; any chance of you coming quietly?"

Aaron pulled a pair of silvered sunglasses from his pocket and slipped them on. "And what would be the fun in that?"


	9. Smackdown

The blue glow on his arm blazed brilliantly, and Volt charged right at the Titans, his incredible speed allowing him to cover the rough ground in less than a second. They barely had time to react before he clothes-lined BeastBoy and Robin. As they crashed the ground, Volt skidded to a stop and turned towards the remaining Titans. Raven backpedaled as she tried to gain room to cast a spell, but Starfire and Cyborg charged right in. Starfire let loose a barrage of starbolts that Volt merely twisted and stretched around, dodging them so that only one skimmed his jacket. Starfire stopped as soon as Cyborg was face-to-face with Volt so as not to hit her teammate, and Cyborg attacked with thunderous punches that could shatter concrete. Volt, however, also dodged them with ease, finally slipping under Cyborg's upraised arm. He slammed an open palm into the base of Cyborg's arm, throwing him off balance, and lashing out with his foot, knocking Cyborg off his feet. As he pitched forward, Volt smashed his other hand into Cyborg's side, spinning him away to slam into a block of concrete. As soon as Cyborg was out of the way, Starfire recommenced her barrage, but Volt darted back two steps and back-flipped over a portion of a collapsed wall, putting a barrier between him and Starfire. Starfire zipped around the wall, only to be smashed with a chunk of concrete. Volt had wrenched about 10 feet of a steel support rod loose from the rubble, and one end still had a lump of anchoring concrete meshed onto it. Only Starfire's alien strength prevented her arms from being shattered as she blocked, but she was still knocked out of the sir, to land, stunned, on the ground.

Volt then whipped the pole around like a baseball bat to shatter a large piece of rubble Raven had flung at him. The rubble splintered into dozens of fragments, and rather than stopping and reversing his swing, Volt pivoted on his heel and brought the heavy steel rod whirling about to slash diagonally downward at Raven. Raven flung up a shield, and when concrete and dark energy met, the concrete cracked and flew off the metal bar. Undeterred, Volt continued to swing wildly at Raven's shield. Although he couldn't break through, his superior strength forced Raven back several feet with each impact, and the continuous assault kept her too occupied to do anything else.

After being slammed to the ground, BeastBoy had taken a moment to recover and then pushed himself up sped to help Raven. He turned into a bull, and sprinted at Volt, but Volt had seen him coming, and jerked to steel pole into the ground to lift himself up like a pole-vaulter, so BeastBoy slammed into the base of the pole, knocking it down, and Volt dropped, unscathed, behind him.

By this time, Robin had also recovered, and was following right behind BeastBoy. As Volt dropped down, Robin drew his Bo staff and raised it to try and catch Volt off-balance, but Volt lased out with a swift kick, knocking Robin back and making space to land. Volt swiped a sideways kick at Robin who managed to back up in time to avoid it, but Volt used the momentum to twist the steel pole around and catch Robin mid jump. As Robin was knocked away by the force of the blow, Volt saw Starfire floating less than 15 feet away, her eyes and hands glowing green.

As Volt used the steel pole to block her starbolts he swore, "Why the hell won't you just stay down!" A blast from Starfire's eyes finally caused the overstressed pole to snap nearly in a half, and Volt let the shorter end fly away as he darted under Starfire's attack to leap first off of a short block of concrete, then a steel girder, bringing him face-to-face with Starfire. She managed to block the first kick, but the second, this one from the other leg, snapped up diagonally to catch her in the cheek and temple, twisting her head away so her next eye-blast went wild.

When Volt had managed to neatly avoid BeastBoy the first time, BeastBoy had stopped as quickly as a charging bull was able and quickly turned into a hawk to dart back around. As Volt saw him coming, in one smooth motion he grabbed Starfire by the back of the head and pushed past her, effectively throwing her at BeastBoy. BeastBoy changed into a pterodactyl to try and catch Starfire, but the two crashed together and tumbled to the ground. Volt landed on the ground and immediately had to bend backwards to avoid a blast from Cyborg's sonic cannon. The blast was so close it turned most of Volt's tie, which had come loose from his jacket, into a random assortment of threads. Volt glared at Cyborg and shouted, "That was a $300 silk tie you just ruined."

Cyborg grinned. "That tie was so ugly the way I see it I was doing you a favor."

Volt snarled back, "Fashion advice from a guy in a tin-can."

Cyborg's sonic cannon charged again as he shouted, "Come and see what this tin-can can do."

Volt dropped the battered steel pole and lunged forward, neatly avoiding the blast, and before Cyborg had time for a second, he grabbed Cyborg's arm, and electricity poured into it, scrambling Cyborg's circuits. Volt drove a knee into Cyborg's midriff, and although it didn't hurt the heavily armored Titan much, it forced him to bend slightly, bringing his head even with Volt's shoulders. Cyborg realized this was exactly what Volt had intended, as Volt drove his right arm forward, palm open, to swipe at Cyborg's face. Cyborg was able to jerk his head back far enough to avoid it, and it was only a split-second too late that he realized that this second attack was also a feint. The muscles in Volt's arm bulged and the blue lines in his skin flared as Volt delivered a punishing backhand to Cyborg's head and face. Between the electricity coursing through his arm and shoulder, and a hit that felt like being struck with a sack of bricks, Cyborg momentarily blacked out.

Cyborg came-to with the odd sensation of floating, until he realized Volt's attack had been strong enough to actually lift him off his feet and send him flying several yards through the air. Reality quickly reasserted itself as Cyborg crashed to the ground and skidded to a halt amongst the charred and broken rubble.

Raven was now the only Titan not momentarily stunned, but Robin was pushing himself to his feet, and BeastBoy was disentangling himself from Starfire. Raven realized Volt was too quick to engage in close combat, and also noted that her teammates were also all out of the path between her and Volt. She shouted, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" and power surged out from her hands. Dozens of chunks of concrete, steel, and other bits of debris exploded towards Volt in a shotgun-like blast of gigantic proportions. Volt twisted, turned, and stretched in an incredible display of acrobatic ability, avoiding the larger pieces, all while moving towards Raven at what would be an all-out sprint for a normal person. Even Volt's inhuman speed was, however, unable to totally protect him; he was scratched in the arm by one jagged rock, a spinning sliver of metal slashed his leg, and a chunk of concrete ricocheted of his chest. As he drew within arms reach of Raven, he swung one hand in an arc at her, and Raven stopped her attack to throw up a small shield. The last chunks of rubble, however, maintained their momentum, and Volt caught onto one with the hand that had been aiming for Raven, using it to reverse his direction and striking Raven in the shoulder with the other hand, catching her wholly unprotected. As his hand met her shoulder, electricity blasted out, causing additional pain and knocking Raven face-forward onto the ground. Robin was already moving, dashing in behind Volt, but he was to slow. Volt blocked the attacks from Robin's Bo staff, and reached under his arms to grab at his utility belt, throwing Robin off balance. Volt also jerked one leg up, not actually kicking, but just pushing Robin back. Starfire and BeastBoy also rushed in to help, but when they all got within a few feet, Volt did a 360-degree spin, flicking off a half-dozen explosive disks that he had snatched from Robin's belt. The explosions knocked all three Titans away, sending them flying back onto the ground.

As the smoke cleared, there was a temporary stillness on the roof, as Volt ran his eyes over his fallen opponents. He shouted out, to no one in particular, "You think you're strong, but you can't even touch me."

His eyes shifted his gaze to Robin, who had pushed himself back onto his feet. Robin was probably not in any real condition to fight; he was breathing heavily and one arm was obviously in pain where an explosive disk had hit him. However, he matched Volt's stare and said, "As much as I hate to say it, we are like you in one important way. We never give up."

Volt seemed to consider this for a moment, until his face contorted into a mixture of annoyance and anger. "Even you should know when it is time to admit defeat, and although I admire resilience, I understand there is a fine line between tenacity and stupidity…and you just crossed it." Volt reached down and yanked a strip of blackened metal nearly four feet long out of the debris. It was relatively square where he held it, but along its length it had been crushed and twisted so the far end was sharp and jagged. Volt took two steps towards Robin, and leapt into the air, swinging the crude weapon over his head, preparing for a mighty downward sweep that would certainly crush Robin's skull, if not cleave him entirely in two.

As Volt reached the apex of his jump, everything seemed to pause for a moment as two important events occurred at nearly the same time. The first was a giant bolt of lighting that lit the darkened sky like a strobe light and blinded everyone on the tower, and many people on the ground as well. The second was that Cyborg, who had finally recovered control over his sonic cannon and had been desperately trying to get a clear shot at Volt, fired.

Volt was so intent on Robin he hadn't noticed Cyborg rise to his feet, but he still might have had time to twist away from the sonic blast, except for the fact that his vision was totally obscured by the incredible flash of lightning. Although the bolt was gone in a few milliseconds, it took nearly a full second for Volt's eyesight to return. Just as the light faded and Robin seemed to melt out of the glowing terrain, a second flash filled his vision. Volt didn't even have time for half a curse before the sonic blast hit him full in the chest, knocking the air from his lungs and sending him flying backwards. His arms and legs snapped back as his momentum was reversed, and his makeshift weapon flew from his hands as he was knocked across the roof top, smashing with terrific force into one of the exposed columns in the corner of the still-standing portion of building. As he dropped to the ground, the remaining structure gave an ominous groan, and suddenly a hundred tons of steel and concrete collapsed right on top of Volt, throwing up fragments of rubble and filling the air with thick, choking, dust.


	10. Fall of an Empire

As if the sky had been waiting for a lull in the action to be able to be the center of attention, it chose this moment to let lose with a drum roll of thunder, and a downpour of cold, soaking rain.

The Titans approached the newest pile of rubble that represented what had been the last of the once-majestic building's upper stories. Broken concrete, twisted steel, and shattered office supplies lay everywhere. Robin rubbed his shoulder, which remained nearly numb from the force of Volt's attacks.

"Do you think he's still alive?" BeastBoy asked, shivering in the rain.

"Yeah, do ya think I might've…killed him?" Cyborg asked, a little uncertainly. He kept glancing cautiously at the heap, as if expecting Volt to burst from the wreckage.

"I don't know." Robin stared up into the rain for a moment, as if hoping for it to stop. Mother Nature seemed to have a poor sense of irony, for it started to rain even harder. "Normally I'd say yes, but with Volt-I mean Aaron, I just don't know. I suppose we should at least take a short look around, his body may near the edge of the rubble."

None of the other Titans really felt like spending more time out in the horrible weather, but hearing the weariness in Robin's voice, they didn't protest. Instead they spread out along the near side of the large pile, and started to pick resolutely through the huge mess. As he moved the chunks of building material, being careful not to overexert himself, Robin let his thoughts wander. He certainly wasn't up for any more lengthy battles that night, and he doubted that the other Titans were much better off. He wasn't sure if finding Aaron alive or dead would be the greater comfort. Maybe unconscious would be a nice compromise. Given Cyborg's slow progress in digging through the pile, Robin rightly guessed that similar thoughts were spinning about in Cyborg's head.

They had been searching for less than five minutes, but already the Titans could see that some serious work would be required to even dent the massive task of cleaning off the roof. Robin had decided to give it no more than a quarter of an hour before calling off the search, but it didn't take that long for something to turn up. Being relatively lightly injured, Starfire had drifted father than the other Titans, using the glowing energy in her hands and eyes to search under the overhanging slabs of concrete and the nooks and niches formed by the random assortment of debris. Under one large slab was a particularly deep cavity, with red marks streaking the concrete. Starfire's heartbeat quickened, as she leaned farther into the inky darkness. The green glow made the red streaks look black, and several widened until they became puddles. Back in the farthest corner of the small enclave Starfire spotted a single, bloody hand reaching out from the depths of the rubble. She was about to scramble out and call for the other Titans, when the hand twitched. Abandoning any reluctance, Starfire tore at the debris surrounding the body; as much as she hated Volt, she hated the thought of one even one unnecessary death even more. She pulled out pieces of concrete and metal, flinging them away to clear the area. Blasting apart one last sheet of steel, Starfire looked down to see Aaron's battered body lying on a pile of broken rubble. His legs were still buried under the heap, but it was mostly small pieces there, and they seemed fairly loose. Starfire grabbed one arm and started to pull Aaron from the wreckage, shouting to the other Titans, hoping they would hear her over the pounding rain. "Friends come quickly! I have found-Aaaaaaaaaa!" Starfire's call became a shriek of terror and surprise as the previously limp arm came alive in her grip.

Robin and Cyborg had stayed near the center of the pile, helping each other to shift large pieces and dig through the smaller stuff, while Beastboy and Raven had started working their way around the far side, towards the edge of the building. Robin had perked up when he heard an indistinct shout, but then his blood ran cold when he heard a shrill scream that was definitely Starfire. Adrenaline surged through his veins as he sprinted towards the sound with energy he hadn't even known he had. He catapulted himself over the rubble, ignoring Cyborg's shouts and the calls from BeastBoy and Raven, who had heard even less than he had. He rounded the last corner between him and Starfire, and the sight that met his eyes knocked the wind out of him more effectively than any physical attack. The young alien was lying stretched out on the ground, with steam rising off of her clothes, parts of which were charred black, and her forearms were covered in angry red welts that Robin recognized as electric burns.

All plans for attack and defense fled from his mind, and ignoring any thought for his own safety, Robin dashed to Starfire's side and lifted her out of the puddles forming on the roof. Cradling her in his arms, Robin knew he was wide open to any assault, but he didn't care. He fought to keep the red haze that had appeared at the edges of his vision from clouding his sight entirely, as angry thoughts ran rampant through his mind. Surprisingly, no attack was forthcoming, and moments later the rest of Titans had pulled up behind them. When none of them knelt down to help him check on Starfire, he finally looked up to see what the distraction was.

Volt was clear of the rubble pile, and stood less than ten feet away, staring at the Titans with hateful venom streaming from his eyes. Had Robin not been encumbered with Starfire's limp form, he would have leapt to attack, but it took him only a few seconds to see why none of the other Titans were flying into action, and why he had been allowed to tend to Starfire unmolested. Volt was a mess. His once fine clothes hung about him in tattered shreds. There was barely more than a few square inches of skin that was not covered in bruises, scrapes, or cuts; his blond hair was matted with blood. Volt's left arm hung limply at his side, obviously broken in at least two places, and he was heavily favoring his right leg. One lens of his silver sunglasses was covered in a spiderweb of cracks; the other was gone entirely, except for a single sliver that stuck inward from the rim. Underneath, one indigo colored eye was abnormally large, giving his face a creepy, unbalanced appearance.

Robin felt his rage begin to slip away from him; he let it go. Volt was finished, defeated for certain.

"Gee, I guess having a building fall on you really is bad for your health," said BeastBoy, without a hint of humor in his voice.

Cyborg had his sonic cannon out, and was pointing it right Volt's head. "Alright you oversized Mexican jumping bean, lets see you dodge this."

Volt's muscles tensed up, only to be followed by a gasp of breath as he gritted his teeth against the pain.

Cyborg was about to fire, when a strangled cough cut through the tension and distracted everyone. Starfire had awakened, and although Robin tried to prevent it, she pushed herself unsteadily to her feet and turned slowly towards Cyborg. "Stop, you musn't," she drawled; her speaking obviously painful.

Cyborg looked back and forth between Volt and Starfire, then lowered his arm, ashamed that he had to be reminded what made the Titans different from the villains they fought.

Volt cleared his mouth by spitting blood out onto the ground, and growled, "Shoulda shot me when you had the chance, tin-man."

Before anyone else could respond to the obvious taunt, Raven stepped forward and started walking towards Volt. "Oh stop it already," she hissed. "You can barely stand let alone fight." The other Titans took her lead, and began to move forward in a half-circle, surrounding Volt, who had to shuffle back to keep out of arms reach. As Raven continued to advance, she also continued to speak, driving home her point in that no-nonsense voice of hers that didn't allow for disagreement. "I can see your knees trembling from here, and without medical help you'll probably die of blood loss in less than an hour. Not to mention that the more you injure those broken bones, the harder they'll be to fix. You're beaten; finished. The only one who can't see it is you."

By now the Titans had backed Volt over to the edge of the roof, and the only way left to go was down. Volt looked around at each of the Titans, their faces hard and unyielding. Robin took another half-step forward and extended one hand towards Volt, in a gesture of either peace or an offer of help. "Give up, there's no way out."

Volt considered Robin for a moment. Then, the grimace on his face slowly turned into a smile that stretched nearly from ear to ear. A deep, hollow laugh rose up from his throat, and spilled out into the cold night air. He straightened up a little, so he stood nearly vertical, shook his head as if to clear it, and said, "Robin, you of all people should know there is always a way out." He slowly raised both hands straight upfrom his sides, until they were even with his shoulders.

Robin saw what was about to happen a fraction of a second too late and, even being marginally closer than the other Titans, was unable to reach Volt in time to catch him as he hurled himself from the edge of the building. For a second, Volt seemed to hang lazily in space, then he plummeted silently into the clouds and fog that had rolled in to hide all but the tallest buildings in the city.

Even as Robin scrambled to maintain his balance on the crumbling edge, he felt the rubble beneath him shift. He backpedaled frantically, but it wasn't just a small section of the roof that was sliding down. It seemed as if the entire side of the building had decided to finally heed the inevitable call of gravity. Raven was able to yank Cyborg and BeastBoy back and out of the way, but Robin was swept over the edge amongst the chaos and debris Even as he drew his grappling gun, Robin knew the situation looked hopeless. The entire side of the building was covered in a giant waterfall-like wave of shifting rubble, with nothing solid to hook on to.

Suddenly, Starfire swept out of the dust and rain, and snagged Robin neatly by the wrist. She struggled upward, her injuries upsetting her concentration, and the burns on her hands and wrists making it hard to get a good grip. She barely made it back up to the lip of the building, when they were both snagged by a giant, dark hand. It pulled them right to the center of the partially collapsed building, were Raven was waiting with BeastBoy and Cyborg. The floor seemed stable enough, for the moment, but it now sloped dangerously to one side. "I think," Raven said, "It would be a good idea to get off this rooftop."

Robin just nodded wearily.


	11. What next?

Nearly an hour later, as a couple of EMTs were patching up the various cuts and bruises obtained by the Titans, and another  
pair were bandaging Starfire's burned hands, Robin filled the police chief in on what had happened at the top of the tower, and Capt.  
Roberts filled Robin in on what had happened on the ground since his departure.

The captain pointed to the pile of rubble that now lay at street level; dozens of workers in white chemical-protection suits with  
the Morgen Lyn logo on back crawled all over it, probing and taking small samples. He then said, "The same law that allowed the  
company to store all those toxic chemicals also means that they have to assume full responsibility for all the consequences."

"So, that's a good thing, right?" asked Robin.

The captain frowned. "Yes and no. As their Harvard-educated, overpriced lawyer has just informed me, they'll 'take care of it,  
and there will be no more questions'. So we'll never really know everything they were doing in there. That, and if there was any  
trace of Aaron left you'll never get to look for it."

"There's nothing we can do?" Robin asked.

The captain shook his head. "No, and if you try and interfere I'll reluctantly have to arrest you for trespassing. That pile of  
rubble is technically still their property."

Robin wasn't used to taking no for an answer. "But what about going to judge? He could order an injunction or subpoena or-"

Capt. Roberts shook his head again, more emphatically this time. "No, everything they did was legal. Even if you found a  
sympathetic judge they've got enough legal muscle to keep us running around long enough to clean this mess up." Seeing a dark-  
suited elderly man heading towards them, he murmured, "And here comes corporate leech number 1."

The man walked right up to the two of them and announced haughtily. "You people are within the minimum distance required  
from the building. Move back across the street."

Robin held his temper in check, just barely. The Captain looked right back at the lawyer and said in a dead even voice, "Your boss is a bright-red pancake baking under a hundred tons of steel. Keep up that attitude and I'll see that you get all the detailed police  
pictures." The man turned a rather pale shade of green, and hurried away. Roberts headed in the other direction, and Robin followed  
seeing that more discussion would be pointless. As they drew near the other Titans, Roberts spoke once more. "Why don't you go  
home and get some rest, you all look like you could use it. If we find any zombies or aliens walking around, we'll give you a call.  
Present company excluded, of course." He tipped his hat to Starfire, and walked off to arrange for several units to maintain a constant  
watch on the building from as close a spot as possible.

The rest of the Titans looked at Robin, who turned and said, "Let's go home and rest, we've earned it."

BeastBoy perked up at that. "I think I'm gonna sleep for a week." He sneezed violently. "That is, if I don't catch a cold first."

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Despite their injuries and tiredness, by the next morning (provided you define morning as anything before noon) most of the  
Titans were up and about, working on various projects or going about daily tasks. When BeastBoy finally wandered into the kitchen  
around 12:30, his hair still messy from protracted sleep, the rest of the team decided it was time to break for lunch. Cyborg started  
fixing sandwiches, and Starfire bewailing the fact that she wouldn't be able to cook for several days because of the bandages on her  
hands. BeastBoy came over to her and said, in his most sincere voice, "That's really a terrible shame. But if you want I'll bake you a  
dairy-free tofu cake later." Predictably, this caused Starfire to sweep BeastBoy up in a bone-crushing hug and extol at length about  
what a great friend he was. Raven just rolled her eyes and went to speak to Robin, who had been noticeably absent all morning. He  
was sitting on the couch, staring out the windows, but when Raven approached, she saw him try to slip a manila folder behind his  
back. Raven had a fair idea on what was in it, and wasn't about to waste time arguing, so she simply pulled the folder out of Robin's  
hands with a quick tug of energy. When Raven opened the folder, she saw it was filled with the police reports from the recent  
robberies, snapshots from security cameras, and Robin's own handwritten notes on their fights with Volt. She glared at Robin.

"You're not going to start obsessing over yet another villain, are you?"

Robin glared back at her. "I'm just trying to do what I have to keep this city and my team safe."

Raven's anger subsided a little, and she tried reasoning with Robin. "I know you're just trying to be cautious, but Volt's  
injuries last night were real enough. He'll be out of commission for awhile, if he's alive at alive at all."

Suddenly Cyborg popped over, holding a sandwich that appeared to contain most of the contents of the fridge and a good  
portion of the cabinets, and said, "If! There's no 'if' about it; the guy probably hit the ground so hard he dug himself a ten-foot  
grave."

Raven disliked being directly contradicted, and rounded on Cyborg. "While I don't agree with Robin's methods, I do agree  
with his caution and-" she was cut off by a loud, metallic sounding chime that went 'DING—DONG'. "What was that?" she asked.

Cyborg answered, "Just the doorbell." At this, Beastboy, who had extracted himself from Starfire's embrace, sped towards the  
door shouting, "ItsfinallyherNoonemoveIllgetit!"

"Since when do we have a doorbell?"

"Well, I had some extra parts after I got done modifying the T-sub, and I though it be appropriate in case we ever had visitors."

Raven waved her hand in a gesture of dismissal. "Fine, whatever. Now back to Volt"

"Why do we have to go back to it at all, the guys dead, kaput, finished, and probably molecularly bonded to the asphalt in the  
street!"

Robin took the opportunity while Raven and Cyborg argued, and Starfire tried to calm them down, to slip his file out of  
Raven's hands and store it safely behind the CD rack. As he turned back to help diffuse the rapidly escalating argument, BeastBoy  
zipped into the room, momentarily distracting everyone with his squeals of, "Its here, its here!"

"Alright," growled Cyborg, "What's here?"

BeastBoy leapt up onto the coach, triumphantly onto the coach, holding a small cardboard box. "Only my very own copy of  
the latest video-game to hit the shelves! Biker Zombies from Mars 9000: The Return of LoneSkull" He dropped back onto the couch  
and slammed the cartridge into the video-game system.

Not even turning around, he called out, "Oh, yeah, there's also a package for you, Robin." He tossed the package backwards over his  
head.

Wondering how BeastBoy had even gotten something delivered to the tower, Robin began to pull open the small, flat, brown-paper wrapped box. 

Cyborg, mildly interested in BeastBoy's new game, tried to end his argument with Raven. "Alright, I'll go along with  
whatever you say, if you can just prove Volt is still alive."

Raven didn't really have an answer for this, but Robin did. "He's definitely alive, alright."

Cyborg's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "What! How can you be so sure?"

Instead of answering, Robin passed Cyborg the box. Cyborg, Raven, and Starfire all leaned over to see what was inside. It  
contained a single pair of cracked and broken, silver mirrored sunglasses. One lens was shattered, the other gone entirely. Wires  
poked out of holes in the frames. There were patches of a brown, sticky substance, which was almost certainly dried blood. There was also  
a small note, penciled in on the box lid. It read, "Since I know you like souvenirs, keep these. I'll get myself another pair."

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So, what do you think? This is the first story I've completed, and I'm happy with the way it turned out. I'd really appreciate outside input, though; any and all review welcome. You can even send a blank message, just so I know someone read this.

Anyway, next on my list of projects is to finish,_ Lightning's Haste_, my first story that I started and never completed. It's a JCA story, so start checking next week sometime for new chapters. I've also been working through all the already posted chapters to fix typos and whatnot, which will make the whole thing easier to read. After that I plan to get back to the story of Volt. T he Titans have only seen the opening shots in their battle against this elusive new foe. Wait until the next story to see what Volt does to even the score.


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